We're all mad here...

[JarethsPet]

Normally, it takes a lot for me to need to post because on the whole our customers are not that bad. This week tho...

Background: work at a minimart/gas station/garage/towing company

Garage:

A customer comes in with a very expensive looking Bentley whose tires are so low profile they are practically rubber bands. Expensive tastes all around.
They came in for a tire plug which costs for us to take the tire off and put it back on after putting in the plug. $35 dollars for all that labor.

It was too expensive. He argued with my boss over the price which he was told BEFORE we did any work. To top it all off, he was going back down to Philadelphia and put $15 dollars of regular gas in the car.

Towing:

1. When you sign up for AAA, you get a pamphlet/book stating all your coverage. One of these services is to bring you fuel if you run out. The book states that you will be brought out only enough fuel to get you to the nearest gas station which is either $7 or $10. The member argued with my driver for 15 minutes because she was under the impression that she was to receive enough fuel to get her back to Scranton. She wanted $30 worth of fuel and thought we had the ability to carry that much on the truck.

2. Another service for AAA is for us to come either jump start your car or use a tester to find out what is wrong with the vehicle. This night, I called the member to find out what exactly is wrong so that I can figure out if we need a tester or not. She stated she thought it was the battery but other things were happening such as her ABS light turning on, check engine light on and the curb light on her door would not turn on. I send the driver out there and he calls me back stating that this call is no longer active.

Why? Because she thought we would be bringing out at COMPUTER tester to her car. A several thousand dollar piece of equipment to check why her car was acting up. The driver also told me that she didn't feel like she had to pay $50 at a garage to have the check engine light checked because she had AAA.

3. This call had nothing to do with AAA but was a towing call. A customer wanted us to come out to pick up their vehicle to trade into a dealership. The woman on the phone had no idea where the car was exactly, what the address was, what color the vehicle was or identifying markers. ..At this point she admitted that all this should have been done by her husband who usually drives the vehicle. She refused to put him on the phone but kept yelling at him for information. I ended up finding out where it was and got all the information from the business that the vehicle was sitting in!

[Ophbalance]

1. When you sign up for AAA, you get a pamphlet/book stating all your coverage. One of these services is to bring you fuel if you run out. The book states that you will be brought out only enough fuel to get you to the nearest gas station which is either $7 or $10.

Has this rate/amount ever changed? I know for a fact that of the two times that I've run a tank to the point of being dry, neither vehicle would start back up again without at least 3 gallons of fuel. $10 would be cutting that awfully close.

And for those of you asking "how the hell did you do that?"... pretty simple really . The first time I was living in the mountains of PA. The driveway was on a good 15+ degree slope. I had parked the car nose down on the slope, but it appears the pump was in the back of the tank on that car. My 1 gallon can didn't cut it, but putting another 5 gallons in fixed the issue. On the crap side was the fact that my second vehicle was blocked in by the first.

Second time was gunning for a 600+ mile tank on a Elantra. I made it past 600 miles but pushed it just a litttttttle bit too far. Same deal, the 1 gallon can I had with me didn't allow for it to start back up. That was a fun phone call to the missus to come drive out and bring the 5 gallon can with her. That was the only time I ever tried going that far on a tank (at least in that car).

[sms001]

A customer wanted us to come out to pick up their vehicle to trade into a dealership.

Just what is going through people's minds when they pull this sort of thing? That the towing company 'just knows' magically what car it will be? That you'll just start towing random cars in the area until you get to the right one? sheesh!

[AyreBiskits]

SC will argue over the price of the air they're breathing for free. My brother worked at a convenience store and had to almost call the cops because one of his customers (a well known televangelist who lives in the area) argued over the price of a loaf of bread.

[Crossbow]

A customer comes in with a very expensive looking Bentley whose tires are so low profile they are practically rubber bands. ExpensiveStupid tastes all around.

Fixed it for you. Not the Bentley. The rubber bands for tires, I mean.

She wanted $30 worth of fuel and thought we had the ability to carry that much on the truck.

What? That's what, one jerry can full? You should be able to carry that.

[MrDobalina]

My brother worked at a convenience store and had to almost call the cops because one of his customers (a well known televangelist who lives in the area) argued over the price of a loaf of bread.

...Out of curiosity, this isn't J.S., is it? I ask because I've heard stories of him being an SC before. When I lived in BR, I knew someone who worked at a pharmacy where he picked up his prescriptions, and allegedly he was a total choadhammer every time he came in, wanting his order filled immediately and moved to the head of the line in front of everyone else because DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? and then throw a fit when they made him wait his turn.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

The driver also told me that she didn't feel like she had to pay $50 at a garage to have the check engine light checked because she had AAA.

Nobody has to pay $50 to get the check engine light checked. Auto Zone does that for free.

Of course, if the guy doing the checking is anything like the guy who checked my car, he'll put the wrong engine into his little code reader, it'll spit out ZOMG CODEZ like mad, he'll wonder how the car is even running and say I need close to a thousand dollars of work put into it, I'll take it to my friendly local independent mechanic and pay $35 for a second opinion, he'll tell me the EGR valve is sticking and the gas cap has a few minuscule crack in it that allow air into the fuel system.

Total cost to have all these things fixed: about $250. The Freleighmobile is once again running like a champ.

[wolfie]

Second time was gunning for a 600+ mile tank on a Elantra. I made it past 600 miles but pushed it just a litttttttle bit too far.

What year of Elantra. Mine ('96), the furthest I've gone on a tank was 800 km (500 miles) of pure highway mileage, and I was VERY uncomfortable stretching it that far.

[Argabarga]

Ugh, I've been meaning to rant about motor club customers who don't understand what they've signed up for until they get in trouble and need us and then complain that it can't possibly be costing them ANYTHING since they have a motor club....

You do have a motor club, if you chose the cheapest level of service, they'll only cover you for basics (jumps, locked out, tire changes) or in case of complete breakdown, a tow to the nearest certified garage that can do repairs. If that garage is Jim's Corner Carbangers 2 miles away, then that's where they'll cover you to. If it's the nearest dealer because you're under warranty, that's where they'll cover you to. If you want to go someplace else, you'll have to pay for it.... You don't get to chose wherever you want to go, you don't get to go to your buddy Ed's garage 4 towns away for free, or to your home, that sometimes is in another STATE for free just because you have a motorclub card, unless you have the top tier service that will give you unlimited towed miles, but to get that you'd have to pay a LOT more each month that the piddly amount you pay for "cheapskate" coverage. And don't argue about it to me, I will NOT forge my paperwork to make it look like you went 2 blocks instead of 20 miles, and I won't "knock a little" off, THIS IS HOW WE GET PAID BY YOUR MOTORCLUB, if we lie about it, they'll cut us off for sure and I'm not losing our contract over your cheapness. Remember, YOU need the tow, I can just cancel it and go on to my next and get a $20 we-tried-to-help GOA fee paid to me if you refuse the terms of service. We've done it, don't tempt us again.


And in this day and age, where even the family hamster has a Facebook page, and even your coffee pot is GPS equipped, there is NO GODLY REASON IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA that you should answer the question of "what is your location" with "I don't know". FIND OUT AND DON'T CALL US UNTIL YOU DO!

You're making the rest of the species who learned how to keep from getting eaten until we got old and arthritic look bad!

[wolfie]

You do have a motor club, if you chose the cheapest level of service, they'll only cover you for basics (jumps, locked out, tire changes) or in case of complete breakdown, a tow to the nearest certified garage that can do repairs. If that garage is Jim's Corner Carbangers 2 miles away, then that's where they'll cover you to. If it's the nearest dealer because you're under warranty, that's where they'll cover you to. If you want to go someplace else, you'll have to pay for it....

The motor club you contract with seems to be a bit different from CAA. With CAA, the basic is "up to 25 km free". If the place you want is within 25 km, and involves going past half a dozen other places, you're covered. If the nearest place is beyond 25 km (e.g. highway breakdown), you pay for the excess mileage. The deluxe level is (I believe) up to 200 km.

Note that another thing some people don't understand is that you're covered for a maximum of 4 incidents per year. Also, it only applies to a car YOU are driving (owned, leased, or borrowed from a friend). Many years ago, a co-worker had a no-start condition when the shift ended, and the foreman knew I had CAA. He wanted me to call on behalf of the co-worker, but that's a clear case of the "F-word" (nope, not the one having to do with sex - it's the one associated with Bernie Madoff). Needless to say, I didn't call.

[Argabarga]

We service about 8 motor clubs, but 99% of our calls collectively come from 3 that are well known nationwide organizations.

The cheapest most basic of these only covers you for 10 miles en route and 3 miles towed or the nearest garage, whichever is closer.

You are also covered in full for tire changes, jump starts, lockouts, out-of-gas calls, but, the 10 miles en route still holds, if you're more than 10 miles from us with a flat/dead battery, you owe out of pocket for any overage miles at a $1.50 per mile rate

Gas calls also add the curveball that you can only get 2 gal. max, and you owe out-of-pocket for the fuel at a hefty $5 per gal. rate. It's sometimes cheaper to just get towed to the nearest gas station since you're going there anyway.... and that's intentional to keep people from calling us to bring gas to their home for convenience's sake.

The other two big clubs work on total $ coverages, say covering you for $50, $100, $250 and everything we do, en route miles, towed miles, services performed, have a contracted rate (a basic tow may be, say, $30 for hook-up, $20 for dollies, plus $1.50 for every en route mile, and $2.25 for every towed mile ) and the total when you add it all up either goes over or stays under their coverage limit. They're much better options since they rarely go over and if they do, it's by less than $20.

[Ophbalance]

What year of Elantra. Mine ('96), the furthest I've gone on a tank was 800 km (500 miles) of pure highway mileage, and I was VERY uncomfortable stretching it that far.

A '99. But I'm not like most drivers. That tank included a run of 75% highway along I-95 at around 63MPH . Plus, if you really worked at it, you could squeeze 15.5 gallons into the tank. I also went without A/C. I've had my present car over 600 miles as well, but the tank has a bladder and it's not a good idea to tempt fate .

[vikingchyk]

I have a basic membership with the three letter club. Sometimes they really need to get their act together at the office. Called for a tow because of a sidewall blowout, driver shows up, authorized to take me to the nearest tire place. Fine. Except when we get there, they are just closing, and only do commercial trucks, box trucks and larger only. Oops.

So the driver calls back to dispatch ("Durr, but the computer says it's a tire place!" "Yeah, not really.") They give him the name of another place (that we passed on the way to this one ) but when we get there, it's a tiny one-man shop, and the owner says automotive repair only; he doesn't sell or fix tires. Ugh. At this point we've covered about 5 miles, past the "free" limit. Not my fault they keep sending us to places that can't help.

Before we can get to strike three, the driver says screw this, can I tow it to Major Tire Place about 10 miles down the road, or do you know someplace nearby? Sure MTP is fine (I forgot there was one closer, but it was a more convoluted route, so the straight shot down the road was probably better for not getting him lost.) Didn't charge me for the additional tour of central MD. I tipped him well (I hope)

[wolfie]

A '99. But I'm not like most drivers. That tank included a run of 75% highway along I-95 at around 63MPH . Plus, if you really worked at it, you could squeeze 15.5 gallons into the tank. I also went without A/C. I've had my present car over 600 miles as well, but the tank has a bladder and it's not a good idea to tempt fate .

That explains it. Mine has a (nominal) tank capacity of 55 litres (14.5 U.S. gallons), so you had more fuel than I did. Also, I was on a secondary road (Trans Canada Highway) north of the Lakes, with a lot of hills. Large parts of I95 are practically flat - what part were you on? I didn't use A/C either - my car doesn't have it.

[Ophbalance]

That explains it. Mine has a (nominal) tank capacity of 55 litres (14.5 U.S. gallons), so you had more fuel than I did. Also, I was on a secondary road (Trans Canada Highway) north of the Lakes, with a lot of hills. Large parts of I95 are practically flat - what part were you on? I didn't use A/C either - my car doesn't have it.

I think the specs call for 14.5 for the 99-00 as well, but if you stuffed the tank (all the way into filler neck), you could get another gallon in there. I was travelling between Smithfield, NC and Richmond, VA for a kid swap with the inlaws. That section of I95 is pretty flat and traffic was fairly light for both legs of the trip.

My daily travels to work are about 90 miles of interstate. I found that keeping the speeds close to 60 MPH, keeping the A/C off, that most of my tanks ended up in the 40+ MPG and around 500 mile range. Oh, and I also had to keep the missus out of the car as well . Without fail she'd set the A/C on "Artic Blast" and the fan speed on "Gail Force Winds". She'd pull the tank averages down by 5 MPG every single time.